San Jose Inside

Decision day has arrived. It’s time for a radical change at City Hall. We need new blood in the office of mayor and on the council so that we can begin to come to terms with the mess left by the Gonzales years and look to a better future. We need leaders with a strong, clear vision based on wide experiences in life that are honest, wise, trustworthy and steady, and open to innovation and new ideas in our rapidly changing world.

Says He Has Spunk AND Memorized Pandori’s Book

City Councilman and mayoral candidate David Cortese filed an official complaint with Mercury News Publisher George Riggs on Wednesday in an effort to force columnist Scott Herhold to print a retraction to his column supporting Michael Mulcahy for mayor.

With public dissatisfaction of local, state and national leadership running at levels of 60 percent (Schwarzenegger), 75 percent (Bush), 90 percent (Congress), and nearly 100 percent (Gonzales), this election brings voters a chance to effect real change in all aspects of government. We could hardly do worse, unless we enable more of the same. We must ensure that we eliminate those agents of our dissatisfaction from contention. This may be the overriding factor in making choices on Election Day.

Well, the time we have all been waiting for has arrived—a wait of nearly eight years on some of our calendars.  The long, dark reign of Ron Gonzales is over. It has been a dismal period for our community. Yet, the pivotal questions are: will the damage and offense against San Jose’s reputation of good government and good planning persist? Or, is the nightmare over?

We are sitting exactly one week from the mayoral primary and now it’s time to start making some decisions on your vote.  Whether you want to know or not, my vote next week for mayor is going to David Pandori.  I have come to this decision because I feel we need a tough, yet principled leader who will take San Jose where it should have been years ago, and restore pride and trust in our city government.  This will not be an easy task—being that the Gonzales regime probably stripped most of the honor and trust out of the mayor’s office—but I feel that Pandori can restore that pride and trust for us, while also getting things done. 

When I graduated from San Jose State University in 1995, I had a list of friends that were homeless.  I often wondered if the homeless community, who lived in the bushes and ate out of garbage cans, would ever be relieved from the misery of asking a guy half their age for a quarter or what was left of the overpriced sandwich I was eating on my break from the Spartan Pub.  Being a veteran, I was amazed at how many of the handouts I gave went to those with military records. Sadly, some of the same people who used to hit me up for change and food are still circulating in the downtown area over a decade later.

“Superhero” Commercials Challenged

Just days after the Chavez for Mayor campaign released a commercial depicting their candidate leaping from a squad car into the melee of the downtown Mardi Gras to save lives, the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, has asked that the last two commercials in the so-called “superhero” series be pulled.

Like other voters, I have received the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce hit piece on Cindy Chavez as well as the “Cindy Chavez stole my home” phone calls from the same Chamber political action committee, COMPAC. Unlike others, perhaps, I am not surprised by their tactics. After all, the Chamber is an organization of, by and for the local business community. They are empowered to look after the special interests of their members, representing a very small but vocal portion of the population of our city who seek a large influence at City Hall. It just so happens that these may not be the same interests of the vast majority of our citizens.

There is never a shortage of cynicism and hypocrisy during election season.  Yet, this year there seems to be an abundance of disquieting events not seen for some time.  While the disgraceful nadir of ethics at City Hall is setting the bar quite low, in this election we may be taking the bar to the ground—there will hardly be room for a slug to go beneath it. 

I have not seen any TV commercials for any candidate for mayor.  Maybe it’s because I choose to get my information from the Mercury News or, more likely, because I have TiVo and hate commercials more than most anything in the world, I fast-forward through every TV program I watch. So this week I am asking for help from our readers in filling me in on what I might be missing. 

In my recent series on the 1906 earthquake, I related Ralph Rambo’s memories of the day. I especially liked the episode of how he adopted the Doyle School dog after discovering him shivering on the front stoop of the school. Calling the dog, he jumped into the buggy, driven by Ralph’s father, and the dog stayed with them until he died many years later.

“Tiegate” Case to be Heard in U.S. District Court

During a Thursday afternoon mayoral stump speech, current San Jose City Councilman and mayoral candidate Chuck Reed was picked up by federal marshals and detained for several hours after being charged with the desecration of the American flag.

I have an admission to make: right now, I don’t give a damn who becomes the next mayor. OK, maybe I just got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or being a news junkie has finally caught up with me. But, given the candidates we have to choose from and the situation in our city, state and world, what does it matter who becomes mayor and why should I care?

As much as I try to stay in a good mood, nothing, other than a Shark loss to Edmonton, gets me as riled as looking at the current seal of the City of San Jose.  The basic logo, with the rising sun symbol, was chosen when I was mayor, and I still like it—but the recent addition of the caption, “10th Largest U.S. City,” was a defensive, clueless decision that just shrieks “bush league.”  The old caption, “Capital of Silicon Valley,” although a reach, said so much and associated us with the most dynamic entrepreneurial spot in the history of mankind.  Apparently, it didn’t reach enough.

Over the weekend, the Mercury News came out with their first mayoral election poll and there were a few surprises as well as a few non-surprises.  I feel that the fact that 37 percent of voters are still undecided is a great sign.  That shows me that people really want to hear what all the candidates have to say and aren’t just voting for the name they know or the person from their district. I hope it is because they are reserving judgment until the end and it’s not a sign of apathy or disgust. And then, there is the question of how reliable these polls really are.